The Haines cross-country team opened its season last Saturday with mixed results.
The boys team finished eighth out of 11 teams at the Jack Eddy Invitational Meet in Petersburg.
Meanwhile, the Glacier Bears fielded only two girls. At least five runners are needed to post a team score.
Haines coach Keri Ewing was encouraged by his team’s early-season showing. “We were one of the few teams with four runners nearly breaking 20 minutes for the course, and that’s really good, especially on a first meet,” Ewing said.
Freshman Siyel Galindo-George paced the team with a 35th place time of 19 minutes, 45 seconds. “It was my first structured meet and I felt I did well. I cramped up a bit near the end. I think there’s room for improvement to reach my season goal of less than 18 minutes,” he said.
Additionally, several runners recorded personal bests, which Ewing found promising.
Sophomore Patrick Cunningham, whose pre-season goal was to finish in less than 23 minutes, said, “I did great as far as my season goal. I finished in 22:54. So now my goal is to get under 22 minutes.”
Additional Haines times included freshman Kirby Faverty (37th; 19:48), senior Charlie Bower (38th ; 19:56), senior Jacob Stigen (44th; 20:18.), junior Hudson Sage (105th ; 26:42) and sophomore Kamakana Kanahele (108th ; 27:59).
For the girls, junior Tulsi Zahnow and freshman Kiana Donat made the trip to Petersburg. Zahnow finished 71st with a time of 29:10 and Donat finished 72nd with a time of 29:29.
Donat, making her first trip with the team, said, “It was really tiring. We were there for two days but we only ran for 30 minutes and then we were done. It wasn’t bad, but now I know there is room for improving my race time as I get used to the travel.”
The boys teams’ results were (points in parentheses; low score wins) Sitka (24), Juneau-Douglas (45), Thunder Mountain (67), Ketchikan (103), Petersburg (180), Kake (184), Wrangell (192), Haines (207), Craig (235), Mount Edgecumbe (267), and Klawock (276). Hoonah and Hydaburg participated, but did not earn team scores.
The top three boy runners were senior David Wilcox of Sitka (16:58), sophomore Arne Ellefson-Carnes of Juneau-Douglas (16:58) and senior Colin Baciocco of Sitka (16:59).
The girls team scores were Juneau-Douglas (30), Petersburg (54), Thunder Mountain (62), Ketchikan (103), Wrangell (136), Craig (156), and Mount Edgecumbe (171).
The top three girl runners were freshman Sadie Tuckwood of Juneau-Douglas (18:28), junior Erin Wallace of Thunder Mountain (20:02) and freshman Anna Iverson of Juneau-Douglas (20:44).
The Glacier Bears’ next cross-country meet is this Friday in Skagway.